The 2-Sided Reality Of Modern Media (A Jay Acunzo Idea)

In a LinkedIn post, Jay Acunzo explained how there’s two sides to the internet. 

On one side you have the places we all show up to hang out (like social media), with the platform rules and status success games. 

On the other side you have the places nobody goes except on purpose (like Cultish Creative or anybody’s personal website) where, with the aggregation of ideas and lack of games.  

It’s a great thing we have both. But when social platform algorithms dictate one type of creative energy and one alone, it gets sterile. LinkedIn used to feel really sterile but is loosening up some. Twitter feels… ick. I abandoned Facebook but insert your opinion here _____. 

For creators, the trick is to balance both worlds. 

Use social media for general discourse and finding people within the platform rules. Use more personal media for actual algorithm-agnostic aggregation and exploration. We have to learn to dance back and forth, to not lose ourselves in their rules, or forget how to be social with our own personal rules and values in tact. 

The platforms will change. Creating our own personal archive to interlope with – it’s the most important part of what the internet’s created. We can still make scenes, and those scenes – like the community I’ve built here (and Jay’s built here, and the one you’re building on our own site) are the future. 

I have to believe it. Do you?